Connecting Youth to God, Community and Each Other.
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History Conventions
over the years What
we do HistoryDecember 26, 1953 was a benchmark in the history of organised Reformed youth life. At what could be called the first national 'Bondsdag' (convention) in Ulverstone, Tasmania, the ground work for a national youth organisation was carried out. The four youth groups from Tasmania (Penguin, Ulverstone, Launceston and Kingston), together with representatives from the mainland, such as John Krins, Klaas Appel and Wendel Kal, discussed the formation of a federation of youth groups and commissioned New South Wales to form the first executive committee under the leadership of the newly arrived and youthful minister Arent De Graaf. The federation was to be reformational and Calvinistic, but organisationally independent of the church. Perhaps the group had the model of Gereformeerd Heugdwerk in Holland in mind and harboured the hope of incorporating young people in clubs, who were not necessarily members of the Reformed Church; also the Kuyperian concept of sphere sovereignty had a bearing on the decisional. Not all were pleased with this desire for a measure of independence. The pioneer of Reformed church life in Tasmania, the Rev. John Schep, is supposed to have exploded ‘Als je dat doet zal ik een knuppel in het hoenderhok gooien’ (If you do that, I’ll set the cat among the pigeons). But out of the Ulverstone gathering the FCYA, the Federation of Calvinist Youth clubs of Australia, was born. The NSW people took seriously the mandate and trust vested in them and on the 6 March 1954, the first executive committee (‘moderamen’ they called it in those days) of the FCYC was installed at a public meeting in Bible House, Sydney, with Arent De Graaf as President. There was a real sense of occasion about the installation and meeting. A gramophone record was cut for the grand sum of ten pound and there were stirring addresses by several speakers. The agenda of the moderamen for the first two years was dominated by the production, distribution and financing of the FCYA magazine, The Calvinist Youth Herald. The idea of a full-time youth worker was raised as far back as 1965. In 1979 the synod responded to the challenge and Harry Burggraaf commences work as the churches’ national youth worker in January 1981. For a decade he has provided leadership and guidance in the areas of education, training, resources and program materials, the shape and direction of the youth ministry and the involvement of young people in mission and practical service projects. The youth worker conducts regular state training events, co-operates with the youth movement on various projects, has implemented a short-term volunteer service scheme: Seasonal Workshops In Ministry (SWIM) and consults with sessions, committees, and individuals on a range of youth matters. At the ‘Back to Paradise’ convention (1990), the FCYA changed its name to ‘Reformed Church Youth of Australia’ (RCYA). It was felt that ‘Calvinist’ was too much of an alien term in Australia at the end of the twentieth century. What matters is that we believe reformational, biblical truth and give evidence of our Reformed, Calvinistic identity and heritage in our practice. It was also felt that RCYA better reflects the close tie of youth with the church and the responsibility of the church to value and own its youth. 1992 saw Harry Burgraaf pass over the mantle to a new National Youth Worker, Martin Hanscamp. The RCYA committee was based in Victoria where it has remained since. The RCYA (now based in Victoria) worked hard at still meeting the needs of supporting youth ministries through developing national conferences and ongoing development of SWIM and Young Adults conventions and Resources. While these new ministries were emerging, the simultaneous shift was taking place in the way local churches ran youth groups. Times were changing and a national network of local clubs was getting harder to coordinate and resource, since each church was developing a unique approach to their youth work. The role of the RCYA became more about supporting local clubs and running national events for Reformed youth. Conventions were still going strong as were the young adult conventions and SWIM and national training. Papers were produced for the churches on many aspects of youth work highlighting the importance of intentional youth ministry. 1999 saw the handing over of the National Coordinator role to Jonathan Vandenberg. In 2002, the RCYA held its first Target 21 developing leaders program together with the Reformed Theological College. This was after 2 years in the planning and marketing. Training conferences went from nationally based to state based. In 2003, the RCYA
once more went through a name change. It was felt that RCYA, as a name,
was not something that young people across the country could relate to and feel
they connected with. The RCYA wanted to greater connect young people to
one another and decided to look for a more marketable name and logo. Through
a competition across the Reformed Youth the RCYA changed its name to Youth Connection.
From this, the Youth Connection committee drew up three key objectives for their
ministry: To this day, Youth
Connection manages many ministries, conventions have always been the flagship
of the national youth program but many young people are always finding much
growth and enjoyment in the mission trips, leadership programs, training and
Young Adults programs.
Youth Connection coordinates youth activities across the nation. It aims to reach young people and bring Reformed youth together for fellowship, growth and learning. The local church needs to own its own youth and seek to reach and envelope them effectively. Youth Connection assists the churches in this through its programs. This is achieved by the involvement of our National Youth Worker in all of its programs, thus enabling time and energy to be put into bringing history and continuity to its programs and ongoing development and networking. (Last count, he was on 16 different ministry teams/committees!) This is also achieved by the Resource Centre which brings a contact base and quality administration of its programs.
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